Shining Star
by fen-san
Summary: Post-series Ryoko is surprised to encounter one of her old Nadesico crew-mates. M for swearing.


Dislaimer: Just in case anyone was in any doubt - I don't own the rights to Martian Successor Nadesico. I've got the dvds and written a bit of fanfic, but that's all just a bit of fun.

'Border Clash' cocktails are described in Andrey Kurkov's 'Penguin Lost' and aren't mine either.

Shining Star

Lieutenant Subaru Ryoko was on her third 'Border Clash', a not very nice-tasting cocktail that some bartender must have made up when he or she realised their supplies hadn't been delivered, leaving them with only vodka, lemons and soy sauce - thank fuck they were cheap. Since it was her third though her stomach was starting to feel warm and the bar was getting a little fuzzy about the edges, taking the edge off another shitty week. Her fuzzy communing with the spirit of vodka was interrupted by someone taking the barstool next to hers. 'If I hear another word about that last Aesti mission I will punch you spark out, braid or no.'

'I did not recognise you with blue hair, Ryoko-san.' Aoi Jun commented mildly once he'd ordered a Manhattan for himself.

Ryoko's head jerked as she spun to stare at him. Her lips quirked into a smile that couldn't stop the unladylike snorting laughter she burst into. 'The new uniform suits you, Aoi-san.' She glanced at the golden rank insignia on his epaulettes. 'Congratulations on the promotion.' That bit sounded more sincere. Most things would have, but she did actually mean it. God knows he'd deserved a lucky break after the bullshit they'd laid on him during the Jovian mission.

'And on yours, Ryoko-san. You look content, does your new post suit you?'

Before she could argue that point the bartender placed Jun's brandy Manhattan in front of Jun and looked from one to the other. 'Are you siblings? It's amazing that you both got posted to…'

The same large, rounded eyes, one set chocolate brown, the other bright blue swung to look at him in tandem, highlighting the same petite, lean builds, rounded faces and short, glossy hair, differently coloured but still strikingly similar. The swift movement cut him off mid-ramble.

'Him?'

'Her?' Their twin expressions of shocked outrage at being taken for relations made him laugh, and swift on its trail came Ryoko's fiery anger, contrasting with Jun's quiet discomfort.

'We're old crewmates who happen to have a very slight resemblance to one another.' Jun explained smoothly and after a moment of contemplation switched his next order to a Zombie instead. It was turning out to be that sort of a night. If Tenkawa walked in as well he'd have to switch to a straight bottle of vodka.

'Anyway, what are you doing here, Aoi-san? I heard you and your lot were out towards Jupiter.' Ryoko internally snorted at the stupidity of believing military intelligence, as much an oxymoron now as any other point in military history.

'Not for a good few weeks, we had to come back when the cruiser turned out to have a few teething problems that couldn't be fixed in null-gee. We'll be in dry dock here for the next couple of weeks at least, so while I've got a pile of paperwork to do and a few meetings I'm pretty much left to my own devices.' Jun had been quite looking forward to catching up on his reading.

Ryoko tilted her head. Was the booze loosening him up? Vague mental arithmetic put him at least on his sixth unit of alcohol already. Maybe he was just better without the interpersonal bullshit that had plagued the Nadesico missions. Certainly it would be easier to do his job without being henpecked by a ditzy captain who was busy trying to get into the pants of one of the cooks.

'I have a few crew changes coming up too. Hopefully it shouldn't disrupt things. My crew is nice, competent and most importantly sane.' His cheeks were already picking up an adorable rosy blush from the booze that made her want to tease him like he really was her little brother.

'I catch your drift, Jun-san - my new outfit's certainly closer to normal than Hikaru, Izumi and Akatsuki were. If the C/O weren't a jackass things would be great!'

'I thought there might be a reason you hadn't made Captain yet.'

'And I thought you'd never make Commodore with that meekness, certainly not a decorated ship's captain with an honest-to-goodness reputation for chasing down pirates!' He shrugged off the not entirely flattering analysis. 'Looks like I wasn't the only one who should have worried about this being their only 'first star', you never struck me as the type though.'

Jun shrugged helplessly. 'I wasn't exactly operating in ideal circumstances there was I? Nowadays I don't need to go cracking skulls in bar fights to be a good officer, even if I'll never rival your Aesti piloting skills. But then I'm not onboard to pilot Aestis.' His second Zombie appeared and he sipped it at a more sedate pace, concentrating on the conversation instead.

'Who else stayed on? You're the only member of the Nadesico crew I've encountered since the war ended.' Ryoko was at the stage of being drunk where she actually was starting to feel a little bit nostalgic. Not enough to actually contact her old crewmates, it took a lot more booze than she'd had to get to that stage.

'I'm the only one you'll meet in a bar like this. Everyone else lost the taste for it after the last push - none of them were really career soldiers, were they?'

'You seem happier now.' Ryoko blurted the realisation and would have been embarrassed by the soppiness of talking about feelings to another officer had she not drunk rather a lot by that point of the night.

'You're right. You seem more settled and content in yourself too, Ryoko-san.'

'Yeah, anything for a quiet life of border skirmishes and minor sorties than go back to that floating madhouse.' Frankly even the brig sounded more fun than going back to that craziness. Had they been pumping hormones into the air conditioning system?

'I know, it's like that ship's fuel source was actually sexual tension and silly love-triangles.' Jun seemingly replied to Ryoko's thoughts.

'Or our affection for some ancient kiddies' television series!'

Jun laughed at that. 'Oh gods, don't make me feel nostalgic for that madhouse!' He slipped down from his barstool and carefully held on to the edge of the bar for a moment. 'We should do this again.'

'Yeah. We should.' Ryoko agreed warmly, realising with a spark of surprise that she really meant it. It would be nice to have a real friend.

Fin

Author's Note - I have used mish-mashed British rank progression for this for no reason other than familiarity's sake (Ryoko appears to be army, Jun navy, and Commodore at his age would be ridiculous if this weren't an anime series).

I mainly put the sibling bit in because frankly they do look eerily alike, the way they're drawn in the series - or is that just me?


End file.
